The Rings of Fate
by The Anon of Mystery
Summary: The Rings of Fate are two magically binding rings with a star rope that holds two people together for an eternity until the key is found to break it. Sonic and Tails are on the receiving end of this, and now they must explore the galaxy for the key.
1. Realization of a Dream

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**Chapter 1: Realization of a Dream**

Sonic is currently running around the surrounding area looking for a Chaos Emerald. They were scattered recently when one of Eggman's machines went crazy a few days ago. Sonic has been searching a very large, grassy plain that seems to extend as as the eye can see in broad daylight. His special watch which is made by Tails contains a Chaos Emerald tracker. Sonic has just been running around the place all day in order to catch a signal, but comes up empty. After about an hour searching, Sonic stops once his watch vibrates. He looks up into the cloudless sky to see a blue jet approaching quickly. It flies right in front of him. Sonic times a jump onto the left wing of this jet. Tails is the pilot with Knuckles flying in one of the passenger seats. He opens the hatch to let Sonic in who sits in the last seat.

"Why did you pick me up," Sonic asks Tails. "Is there an emergency or something?"

"You are not gonna believe this," Tails explains while piloting the jet. "I received a transmission from Eggman a little while ago. It sounded as if he was in pain, and he was asking for help. I decided not to go, but Knuckles thought that we should at least check this out."

"It's obviously a trap, knucklehead," Sonic replies.

"Well excuse me for actually wanting to help a person," Knuckles yells.

"We should go anyway. He probably has a Chaos Emerald that we can take from him," Sonic says. He starts staring out the window once they get above the ocean. The sun's reflection off of the blue water is pretty bright. They actually are able to see some dolphins on the way to Eggman's residence. This time they are actually going to his house and not one of his many bases located across the planet. Eggman doesn't actually have any current plans for world domination at the moment. He is on a vacation at his actual home which is located on a very large island in the middle of the ocean. It takes Tails almost and hour to find the place. There is actually a landing strip on the western part of the island so Tails lands his jet here. Sonic is the first one to hop out once Tails opens the latch. He start stretching immediately.

"That was a long ride. Where do we go from here," Sonic inquires. After he says that, a very loud, booming noise is heard off in the distance with a mushroom like cloud rising into the air. Sonic takes off to the location with Knuckles and Tails right behind him. Once they finally reach the other side of the island, they stare in shock and awe the the burnt remains of what seems to have been Eggman's house. The place has been destroyed with pieces of the actual house floating out into the sea. It seems that everything which was once in the house disintegrated. Among these ruins is Shadow. It's pretty obvious that he caused this since he appears to be unscathed. He is staring at them who are all still shocked.

"What happened to Eggman," Knuckles growls. He is ready to fight.

Shadow looks down at the ground. "I was angry for what he did to me. I decided to take matters into my own hands. To think he was only using me for promise that he would revive my memory. I got it back, but with the help of friend. After my shocking realization, I made it my dream to go after Eggman and kill him for what he did to me, and I have now accomplished that. I shall now take my leave," Shadow replies. He turns his back and beings to walk away.

"Hold on," Sonic orders. "I have been warning you about this for months now, and you were too dumb to see it. I know and feel your hatred for Eggman. As a matter of fact, we all hate Eggman but you took it too far. You didn't actually have to kill him. Did your friend put you up to this? Anyway, even though Eggman was a bad person, he didn't deserve death. As a matter of fact, he was helpful at sometimes. Because you killed him, I demand that we fight right now. I will not let you get away with kill anyone, even Eggman."

"Sonic's right," Tails agrees. "You were way out of line."

"I'm not wasting my time on a pointless fight," Shadow says. He snaps his fingers. A trap rises up from out of the ground which surrounds Sonic and Tails. Knuckles was standing just out of range from this. Shadow pulls out a Chaos Emerald and uses Chaos Control to get away before Knuckles could even have the chance to attack. Sonic and Tails are surrounded by plastic walls which encloses them in a square. It's open from the top, but it too high for Tails to carry Sonic and fly out. He tries five times before he gives up. Knuckles tries to punch open the plastic dome, but that doesn't work either. After all three of them finally give up, something sparkly and shiny begins to descend on the plastic prison's opening through the top. They are all looking up into the sky to stare at this. What's clear so far is that there are two parts to this thing. They are shaped like rings. They now start to fall faster on Sonic and Tails. Sonic and Tails have both separated into a corner on the opposite sides on the plastic square. Knuckles wants to help, but he can't do anything except watch this happen. One of the rings of light wraps itself around Sonic's left wrist while the other wraps itself around Tails' right wrist. A chain of stars forms between them. Now a voice begins to speak out of nowhere. It's clearly female.

"Those two rings are the Rings of Fate," the voice explains. "The bond can never be broken unless you find the the only thing that break them which is the Key of Fate." The voice stops after that.

"You know, that voice kind of sounds familiar," Sonic says.

"Same here," Tails replies. "Either way, we are kind of stuck together now."

"Yeah, this is bad. We should find a way to kill this as soon as possible," Sonic orders. "We need to get out of this place first. I got an idea. Can you fly to the top of this place without carrying me? Do that and will plant myself down here. Maybe this thing is stretchable?"

"Good idea," Tails agrees. He is able to make it to the top without having to carry Sonic. Tails holds on to the edge of the glass wall. Sonic releases his grip. The elasticity of the rope allows him to bounce up out of the glass enclosure and land outside on his feet. This pulls Tails down. He ends up landing face first instead. Knuckles runs to them.

"Woah," Knuckles exclaims. "You guys are stuck together by the Rings of Fate. This happened to me some years ago."

"Really," Tails says. "You know were the Key of Fate is?"

"Nope. It scatters after you find it and use it," Knuckles explains. "By the way, that voice that explained everything kind of sounds like, uh, I can't put my finger on it."

"You don't have fingers," Sonic replies as he laughs.

"You know what I mean," Knuckles says. "Can you guys slide the rings off of your wrist?"

"I'll give it a shot," Sonic answers. He can't pull his ring off so struggling gets him nowhere. Tails tries to pull his off but that doesn't work either.

"We just have to find that key," Tails explains. "Maybe I can do some research on it back at my place. Back to the jet."

Sonic takes off running like he would normally do. Knuckles and Tails both stands still to watch his stupidity and absentmindedness. Tails firmly plants his feet on the ground as he watches the elastic star band begins to stretch. Once it reaches it's limit, Sonic trips and falls flat on his face while the star band pulls him back to his position on the side of Tails. Knuckles and Tails are laughing at the sight of Sonic being dragged on the ground face first. Sonic stands up and rubs his head.

"I forgot about this," Sonic says as he looks at the ring on his wrist. "Why didn't you run with me? You can keep up with me, right?"

"Well yeah, but it's been a while since I had to do that so I'll need some practice first," Tails explains. "I forgot how to spin my tails at the right and angle so I can use my flight power to accelerate horizontally instead of vertically."

"I didn't understand a word you just said. To the jet!" Knuckles orders.

Once in the jet, Sonic had to seat in the seat behind Tails this time because of the star band. They made an interesting discovery from this. The star band can go through and such. It's currently going through the chair that Tails is sitting in while he pilots the jet. They make note of this for the future. Knuckles fell asleep during the ride so Sonic and Tails got out of the jet without waking him up once they made it back. Sonic and Tails comes up with a plan to wake up Knuckles. Sonic backs away from the jet far enough so that star band would reach it's retraction point. Tails flies towards the jet so he won't make a sound. He floats over Knuckles head and slaps him pretty hard causing Knuckles to fall out of his seat as he wakes up. Sonic draws Tails back to him while Knuckles stands up to frantically look around. Sonic and Tails are killing themselves with laughter.

"No more jokes," Knuckles orders.

"Whatever," Sonic says.

"Ah," Knuckles exclaims. "I just remembered something. When I was stuck to this thing a while back, I was stuck with Vector, Espio, Charmy, and some other person but I forgot who. You might not have to do any research. They might remember more than me."

"Hold it," Tails says. "How can you be stuck to more than one person at a time?"

"They were interchangeable. The ring was always stuck to me, but I was able to switch partners at will," Knuckles explains. "There is way you guys could do this too, but you need to find leader if I recall correctly."

"What's the leader," Sonic asks.

"I'll try to explain it, but it's pretty hard to. Let me use you two as an example. Let's say that I wanted to give Tails the Ring of Fate. He would then be the leader. The person with him at the time would be secondary and just an interchangeable partner. See what I'm getting at," Knuckles explains. "To make it easier to understand, we have to find the person who did this to you and get them to reveal who the leader is. You guys will be able to separate then, but the Ring of Fate will be stuck to the leader until the key is found. Anyone who touches the leader's hand will be bound to the leader for a day. The leader has the power to unbind the partner. The partner doesn't have any control over the process. The weird thing though is that when we got rid of the Rings of Fate some years ago, we sent them out into space. I wonder how they got back?"

"I get it," Tails says. "Shadow can't be the person who did this to us or he would have told us who was the leader when he saw us, so who did this?"

"His special friend did this to us," Sonic replies. "Someone who was probably in space."

"Only Eggman could pull that off besides us and Shadow killed him so it can't be him," Tails thinks. "Also, Shadow was furious with Eggman so it seems like he wouldn't do it either although he did set us up."

"This is a real problem," Sonic says. "We don't have any leads besides Shadow, and it doesn't seem like he would do this to us since he really doesn't care about us. Now what do we do?"

"First thing we should do is call Espio," Knuckles requests. "He probably could really help us out here."

"Okay," Tails says. He walks over to the jet and uses it's communication feature to call Espio while Sonic and Knuckles discuss this matter in the background. After a few minutes of waiting, Espio appears from the jet.

"Never seen this in a long time," Espio says as he examine the rings. "The main thing I remember about these things is that you can pick out the reason for why the ring was attached to you by it's color. This star band is pink, and if I'm not mistaken pink means that someone who loved you did this to you."

"Uh oh," Sonic replies. "I know who did this now."

"Oh yeah," Knuckles remembers. "Didn't you finally set Amy straight the other day as to your relationship?"

"Yeah," Sonic explains. "That's right, I never told you guys about it."

"Spill it, now," Tails orders. "I want to know."

"I think it was last weekend," Sonic says. "I think the weekend before that, I helped her do something but I forgot what. Anyway, she wanted to repay me and show her gratitude. I was sitting down next to that tree over there in the distance with my eyes closed while relaxing. I heard someone walking towards me, so I open my eyes to Amy with a picnic basket. She made lunch for me that day, and it was pretty good. I won't go into details about what she cooked for me since I want to keep this short, but it was a lot of stuff and all of it was excellent. Anyway, you know how Amy starts going crazy when she's around me and wild accusations of us being a couple and stuff. Even though I really don't show it, it kind of angers me that I have go through that on a daily basis or every time Amy sees me. I finally decided that I had enough that and the fact that she would grab me every time she would see me. I told her then and there that we will always shall be friends and nothing more. It's not that I don't like her, it's just the fact that I'm not really a fan of her personality and she's to aggressive and demanding. She hit me on the head with her hammer and walked away in disgust. I never seen her after that."

"Lame," Knuckles replies. "That story was lame." Espio agrees with Knuckles.

"I think that even though Amy is mad at you she still wouldn't do this to you. I mean, no matter how angry you make her or whatever you say to her, Amy still loves you in the end," Tails explains.

"But I've never told her something of this magnitude," Sonic says. "I basically told her that she doesn't have a chance of being anything more than just friends with me."

"True, but Amy can't get into space without coming to me for help so it's not her," Tails says.

"Can't believe I forgot that. It can't be her," Sonic says. "This is will be hard to crack. Espio, you have any idea as to how we can find the key?"

"We need the Chaos Rings in order to retrieve the key. There are five of them I think," Espio answers. "We have to go to Ring Mountain. It has the power to give us clues as to who caused this as well."

"Alright," Knuckles says. "We have to go to that place. I remember the place now and I know where it is."

"Same here. It's a huge, gold ring the size of a mountain. The sun constantly reflects off it producing a blinding light that requires shades," Sonic explains. "I thought it was just a weird place and I never gave much thought of climbing it since I can't. It's huge ring so it's impossible for me run up it. We have to fly over it and jump down on it."

Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles get back into the jet.

"Um, can I come with you guys," Espio asks. "I need some time away from the two idiots I usually hang with."

"I guess," Tails says. Espio takes the last available seat next to Knuckles.

* * *

Next Chapter: Realization of a Dream II

Hint: Main antagonist is not Amy (she would be too obvious based on the clues given in this chapter, and it's not Shadow either...)


	2. Realization of a Dream II

**Chapter 2: Realization of a Dream II**

After about an hour of flying in the jet at its top speed, the team begins to approach Ring Mountain. It's just like Sonic described it. The place is located in a desert surrounded by sand as far as the eye can see with a cloudless sky. No trees are in sight. In the middle of this is a huge, gold structure that protrudes from the ground into the sky. Only half of this huge ring is visible. The other half is buried in the sand below. Tails hands over the piloting to Knuckles while the rest of them decide to jump from off the left wing of the jet. If you played Sonic Heroes, then picture Tails, Sonic and Espio and the flight formation in that order. Knuckles brings the jet closer to the ring-shaped mountain. Once close enough, Tails takes off with Sonic and Espio under him. Tails is able to hold out long enough for them to land on the top of the ring. The top surface is surprisingly flat as if a walkway was put here on purpose. From here there is a great view of the landscape with a very gentle wind blowing.

"Wow, look at the view," Sonic exclaims.

"So, how do we activate this," Tails asks Espio.

"You guys have to fall in the middle," Espio explains. "It sounds weird I know, but the Rings of Fate are required to awaken this ring. The ring should float out of the ground and expose its whole self. We should be able to talk to it from there."

"Skydiving," Sonic says. "Alright, let's do it, Tails."

Sonic jumps off of the ring with Tails simply falling right behind him. Sonic is in a face first position with his eyes wide open enjoying every minute of it while Tails is screaming and waving his arms around frantically with his tails wafting behind him. Once they reach the middle, they stop falling and began to float. The ground starts to shake and gradually breaks into two then separates further to reveal the bottom half of the ring. The giant ring rockets into the air straight into the sunlight. Sonic is enjoying this exhilarating experience while Tails is still screaming. Espio is just trying to stay on top of the ring which is not proving to be an easy task. The ring stops floating once it passes the clouds, but it does not exit the atmosphere. Sonic and Tails are now floating in the middle of the ring and looking up with their backs turned to the ground. The ring then flattens out and forms sort of a mouth. Espio eventually falls off of the top of the ring and ends up floating with Sonic and Tails in the middle. The ring now speaks.

"For releasing me from the prison in the sand, you now get three wishes," the ring says.

"See, I told you it would help," Espio says. "What are you guys gonna wish for?"

"Can you tell us the location of the Key of Fate," Sonic asks.

"The Key of Fate lies within space. You need the Chaos Rings to find the Key of Fate," the rings says. "Two wishes remaining."

"Where can we find the Chaos Rings," Tails asks.

"The Chaos Rings are in space as well. I shall transfer the coordinates to first one into your head. The first one will help you find the rest. One wish remaining," the ring says.

"That's basically all we need to know. I can do some modifications to the jet that will enable it to get into space and I know where to find the first one," Tails explains.

"Maybe we could wish for the ring to put us back down," Sonic implies.

"He's right," Espio agrees.

"Oh, right," Tails says. "We want to go back down now."

"Your wish is my command," the ring says. "Before I send you back, I think I should say that current leader of the rings is the yellow one." The ring sends them back using teleportation after it says that.

Sonic, Tails, and Espio ends up in the jet. It's the exact place that Tails was thinking of when he made the wish and the ring got it right without him saying it.

"This is weird. Tails is the leader according to the huge ring person," Sonic says. "Now I'm even more confused as to who did this to us since it's supposed to be a loved one according to Espio."

"Uh, you don't think it could be," Espio guesses.

"Impossible for it to be who you are thinking about," Sonic says. "She's dead, remember? Tails, got any input on this?"

"I don't know," Tails says. "I never had anyone like that after, well you know."

"Well then, we will find out eventually on our quest for the Chaos Rings. We shouldn't worry about it too much right now," Sonic explains. "We should just go home and try to figure things out from there."

After a few hours of flying, they reach Tails' place once more. All of them jump out of the jet. Since the leader of the rings have now been found out, Sonic and Tails try to figure out how to separate since neither Knuckles or Espio remembers how to pull it off. First thing they try is to run apart, but that ends with the star band pulling them back towards each other. Their heads collide and they fall to the ground. Tails comes up with another idea. He orders his partner to roll into a ball. Tails picks him up and throws him as hard as possible. Sonic rockets into the air hoping that the star band will give way, but it doesn't and he ends up hitting the ground again. Sonic is seriously angry. He then tries to pull the ring off of his wrist and he succeeded.

"All that for nothing," Sonic says while rubbing his head. "Anyway, how long do we have until the effect wears off?"

"One day I think," Espio explains. "After that, the closest person to Tails will become his partner or anyone who chooses to put on the other ring. Also, you can't go too far from him until the day is up or you will be forcibly rejoined."

"No problem. I'll just take my usual spot right there," Sonic says. He walks towards the tree on his right. Once under it, he sits down with his head against the tree and begins to relax.

"I'll get started with the modifications to the jet. Maybe I could make it bigger and adjust it for space travel within a day, but I have to work for a solid 24 hours in order to pull it off. I'll get straight to work," Tails says. He hops into his jet and flies it around back into the waterfall that's located on the side of the cliff where his workshop is located. The tree that Sonic is resting under is the only tree in front of Tails' workshop. He will stay here until Tails finishes. Knuckles decides to wait as well since he doesn't have anything better to do. He takes a seat on the other side of the tree. Espio went back to where he previously was since he helped them out already and he's not needed anymore. A few minutes later after Espio leaves, Sonic begins to drift off into sleep when he hears someone call out his name. He stands up and looks to his left to see Cream standing there with a worried look on her face. She's panting as if she's been running around all day.

"Cream, what's up," Sonic asks.

"I have been looking for you all day," Cream says. "I been wanted to tell you that Eggman captured my mother this morning."

"Really," Sonic screams. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah, he took her to his home," Cream answers.

"Uh oh," Knuckles says. Both Sonic and him falls into a short state of silence.

"Uh oh what," Cream asks.

"Uh, I don't know how to say this," Sonic begins to hesitate with his speech. "You see, when we got to Eggman's place this morning we found Shadow there and the place was destroyed with no one in sight. He admitted to blowing up the place in order to go after Eggman and he succeeded. So, what I'm trying to say is that Vanilla is..."

Cream already began crying once Sonic made it halfway through his speech since she knew the outcome. "Now I lost both my mother and Cheese as well," Cream says as she wipes tears from her eyes.

"You lost Cheese too," Knuckles asks. "Was he with your mother as well?"

"No, I just haven't seen him since this morning," Cream says. "On my search for Sonic I kept a look out for him too. Now what will I do? I can't stay at home by myself."

"Hm, I pretty sure that Amy wouldn't mind taking you in," Knuckles says. "If we could catch up with her and explain the situation then maybe Amy would let you stay with her."

"You guys don't have to go looking for her. She's been helping me out my search too. I'll call her through my watch," Cream says. Her mind finally connects and she sees her error. "I can't believe I forgot about these watches that Tails made for us awhile back for communication. If only I had thought about that sooner..."

"Don't worried about it. You forgot because you panicked," Sonic explains. "It happens from time to time, even to me. Anyway, call Amy and tell her to meet us here. We have to tell you guys something."

After a few minutes, Amy arrives with Cheese who she found not too long ago. Sonic and Knuckles brings them up to speed on the current events.

"At this moment, Tails is prepping the jet for space travel. He's stuck to the Rings of Fate," Sonic explains. "We don't know how this happened or who did it, but we plan to find out and free him from them."

"We need to find the five Chaos Rings which will in turn help us find the key and also help find out who did this to Tails," Knuckles explains. "Sonic was the first one stuck to him but they are able to separate for a day. This is good because Tails needs to work on the jet. That's what's going on so far."

"Oh, poor Tails," Cream says with her head down.

"Why would someone do this to him," Amy asks.

"I don't know, but Knuckles and I are going to space with Tails in order to help him crack this mystery and get rid of the Rings of Fate," Sonic says. "Whoever did this to him needs to be taught a lesson." Knuckles agrees with Sonic.

"Can I go too," Amy asks.

"I knew that coming," Knuckles says. "That's all up to Tails. We can't answer for him."

"You know he will say yes anyway," Sonic says. "We can't bother Tails right now and you guys can't get near him. He needs to finish within the 24 hour period before the Rings of Fate bind the closest person to him or the previous partner which is me. We should stay outside of his workshop for now and wait until he finishes." He takes a seat back in his original spot. Amy and Cream goes to Amy's place in order to prepare for the space trip.

"It looks like Amy isn't mad at you anymore," Knuckles says as he takes a seat.

"That's good," Sonic says. "She didn't cling onto me either. Maybe she's over it."

"I guess so," Knuckles says. He stares up into the leaves in on the tree. He then pulls out the Master Emerald and begins to inspect it. "That reminds me, what will we do about the Chaos Emeralds?"

Sonic pulls out the blue Chaos Emerald he had with him. He begins to toss it and the air and catch it repeatedly. "We'll find them when we get back. Since Eggman is gone now, no one will be around to compete with us for them. There's no rush. I only need one anyway."

"You're right," Knuckles agrees. "I have been thinking about something this whole time. Don't you think that killing Eggman would make our lives so much easier. I mean, he's usually the source of all our problems. With him out of the way we could live in peace and relax all of the time. The emeralds would never get stolen. No one would be captured. No world domination. It would just be peaceful."

Sonic thinks for a minute. He continues tossing the Chaos Emerald. "I see it like this. Without Eggman around it could get a little boring, right? Even though I generally don't like Eggman, I'm not the type to hold a grudge. Also, Eggman has helped us out many times in the past. He's not out to kill us, he's just trying to take over the world. I normally stop him and clean up his mess, and that's the cycle of things between us. I've come to think of Eggman as more a friendly rival over the years instead of a mortal enemy. That's why I wanted to avenge Eggman when I found out he was dead and that's probably why Tails wanted to help too."

"I see what you mean, but Eggman usually hurts us more than he helps us," Knuckles says. "Well, there's no use in worrying about it now. I guess I'll take a nap."

"Same here," Sonic says. "It'll help time move along quicker."

* * *

So, now it's confirmed that space travel is imminent. The next chapter marks the beginning of the Chaos Ring hunt with the first planet that shall be visited and the reason why the Rings of Fate has been bestowed upon Tails.

Next Chapter: Meta Junglira


	3. Meta Junglira

**Chapter 3: Meta Junglira**

A day has passed since the last chapter. Sonic and Knuckles are still sleeping in their normal spots on both sides of the tree. The sun is out and is shining brightly through the clouds on this glorious day. A very gentle wind is blowing which is cause the leaves in the tree to sway and fro. The clouds are moving across the sky and blocking the sun creating temporary shade across the landscape. Sonic flips over on his in the middle of his sleep in order to reposition himself, but he is not prepared for his rude awakening. The second of half of the Rings of Fate breaks through a window in order to get out of Tails' workshop. It seems like the 24 hours are up. The second ring which is connected to the star band is open on one side to form kind of a grappling hook. It hooks itself to Sonic's wrist. The star band now beings to reel Sonic into the workshop to Tails. It lifts the hedgehog into the air at an incredible speed. He is still sleeping while in midair. The star band sends Sonic through the other window this time and that causes him to wake up. His eyes are open wide with shock.

"Waaaa," Sonic screams as the star band carries him through the ground. It apparently has the power to go through things. Tails is done with the modifications to the jet and managed to get a few hours of sleep in his workshop with his head on his desk. His arm which has the other Ring of Fate attached to it is currently suspended in the air because it's stretched but he doesn't notice it. He's still sleeping like a baby. Sonic appears through the ceiling while still screaming and waving his arms around frantically.

"Tails, wake up," Sonic orders loudly, but Tails is a very deep sleeper so this doesn't end well. Sonic puts his arms in front of his face in order to guard it. He collides with Tails head on causing the fox to fall out of his chair and hit the ground with Sonic landing on top of him. He rolls to the side and shakes Tails who has been knocked out for a little while but wakes up after a few minutes of shaking. Sonic was actually preparing to backhand slap him.

"I'm okay," Tails says nervously as he guards his face. "My head hurts. What happened?"

"The Ring of Fate broke through one of your windows and latched onto me then carried me down here," Sonic explains. "I screamed for you to wake up, but you didn't move. You're a deep sleeper."

"I guess so," Tails says. "The 24 hour period must be up."

Sonic helps Tails up and then he runs around the new and improved jet in order to inspect it and to get a good look at it.

"Is it done," Sonic asks. "It looks bigger."

"Yeah, I made it bigger and added a storage area with some bedrooms and such. I also prepared it for space travel, but we'll need the Master Emerald to power it this time," Tails explains. Knuckles comes running into the place from the stairs to the left.

"Tails, it looks like someone broke into your house," Knuckles screams.

"Uh, that was me," Sonic says. He lifts up his arm to show that the bond has returned.

"I wish I was awake to see that," Knuckles says with a laugh. "Oh yeah, I overheard that you need the Master Emerald to power this new beast." He pulls it out and tosses it to Tails. "There you go. I trust you with it."

"Thanks," Tails says. He uses his tails to fly to the top of the jet in order to put the Master Emerald in a glass compartment in the top that will give energy to the engines and the batteries. "Alright, we're set now."

"Wait, we can't go until Amy and Cream get back, remember," Knuckles says.

"They're coming too," Tails asks. "Why?"

"We told them what happened to you and they want to help," Sonic says. "That should be enough, right?"

"I guess so. Alright, I'll wait for them," Tails says.

"Er um, we never asked you this yet, but how do feel about this situation," Knuckles asks. He continues to question Tails. "Do you still have any idea as to who did this to you? Are you scared or something?"

Tails picks up his chair and takes a seat in it again. "I don't know who did this to me. You guys are the only people I'm actually in contact with. I'm not afraid or anything, I just want to unmask this mystery person as quickly as possible and find out their reason. There has to be an explanation since no one would just do this to me for no apparent reason. Those are my only concerns," he explains.

Sonic is standing in the corner with his arms crossed and his back against the wall with his eyes closed. "I think that it must be someone we know in order for them to enlist the help of Shadow and give him his memory back," Sonic says. "But who do we know in space?"

"Maybe it's someone that know us, but we don't know who they are," Knuckles explains. "Someone could possibly just be forcing Tails to collect the Chaos Rings and in the end they will take them from us to do something with them leaving Tails to be stuck with Rings of Fate forever."

"That's possible too," Tails says. "Either way, I'm not worrying about that right now. We should just find the first Chaos Ring. That's the only thing I care about right now."

"That's the spirit. Before you know it, we'll be done in no time," Sonic says. "Now if those two would just hurry up. I'm getting tired of waiting."

"Wait no more," Amy says as she swings open the door to the right with Cream right behind her. "Ready to go? I'm hope I'm not late. By the way, two of your windows are broken."

"The Ring of Fate forced the bond between them and carried Sonic through the window," Knuckles says with a smile. "I wish I was awake to see that."

Cream is looking at the star band between Sonic and Tails. She touches it and it bounces back like rubber. "This is pretty," she says. "How do these things work?"

"Well, I don't know too much about them yet, but I know a few things," Tails says.

"Here we go," Knuckles says unenthusiastically. He takes a seat.

"The star band is kind of like the rope that connect Sonic and me. It stretchable and gives us the power to go through tangible objects such as walls and stuff. Because every stretchable object have a limit, we can only be so far from each other until the star band pulls in. I'd say a good 50 feet is the limit. We can also use this to propel ourselves into the air or get a really big speed boost," Tails explains. He finishes his speech. "I think that it's not that bad especially since Sonic and I get along well."

"Back, back, back, back, what, give me 50 feet," Knuckles says.

"Well put," Tails says.

"Can we go now," Sonic says while tapping his left foot.

"Alright," Tails says. "Enter through the ramp right there."

Tails is the last person to walk into the jet. He closes the ramp behind him. The first place they come in contact with is the control room which contains a total of six chairs. Tails didn't know that Amy or Cream was coming, he just went all out for the sake of it. Tails takes a seat in largest chair which is the captain's chair. Sonic takes the chair all the way in the back. Knuckles was order by the captain to take the stairs and go to a glass compartment that protrudes from the ceiling, kind of like a skybox, in order to talk to the Master Emerald from there to power the ship. That place was made especially for Knuckles. Amy and Cream are sitting in the two seats to the left and right of Tails respectively. Amy handles weapons and shields while Cream is to keep an eye on the monitor. Cheese is sleeping in her lap. The coordinates to the first Chaos Ring have been put in already. Tails looks up at Knuckles and gives him a thumbs up. Knuckles is relaxing in a lounge with a TV on the other side of the wall in case he wanted to watch TV and a computer to his right in case he wanted to surf the net. To his left is the microphone which Knuckles can use to communicate with everyone in the control room or to talk to the Master Emerald directly.

"Hey, Tails," Knuckles says through the microphone. "Thanks for the setup up here. I like it."

"Uh, start the emerald off please," Tails requests.

"Oh right," Knuckles says. After a few minutes, he gives Tails the okay to start the jet. It works and jets takes off into space. Tails is ecstatic about this and so is everyone else.

"Alright, I've set the jet on autopilot to the coordinates given to me by the Master Ring," Tails says.

"Now what do we do," Amy asks.

"Er um, nothing," Tails says "We just wait until the radar picks up something."

"So, how will we pass the time," Amy asks.

Tails thinks for a moment. "That's the main thing I forgot to add to the jet, something for recreational purposes. I feel stupid now," Tails says sadly. "Oh well. Sonic, through the wall powers please."

"Why, you got something to do," Sonic inquires.

"The engine room is right under this room so I want to get down there and see how things are running, perform maintenance, ect," Tails says. "It's just right below so I won't pass the 50 feet limit."

"Ok then I guess. Let me see if I can remember how to pull it off. It was a spur of the moment type thing," Sonic says. "I think I got it now. Grab my hand." Tails holds Sonic right hand. Sonic thinks for a second and Tails begins to blink then eventually disappears. Sonic throws him through the floor. "I did it, alright! Now to take my seat until we get to that planet."

"Uh, could I talk to you before you go to sleep again," Amy asks.

"Uh oh," Knuckles says through the microphone.

"Stop spying," Amy screams. The sound causes Knuckles to ears to hurt.

"Lesson learned," Knuckles says.

"What's wrong Amy," Sonic asks with his arm over his head. He still remembers being hit by Amy's hammer.

"I'm sorry for hitting you with my hammer the other day. I was just caught off guard by what you told me," she says.

"Ah, don't worry about it," Sonic says with a smile. "It didn't hurt that much. So, you're not mad at me anymore?"

"Nah, not anymore," Amy says.

"Alright," Sonic says. Amy walks back to her seat and Sonic falls asleep in his chair once again.

We shall now return back to the original planet for a bit. Shadow is skating along on the sand in the desert where the Ring Mountain is supposed to be located. He's not trying to activate it or anything, he just has to meet a person here. Shadow stops once he comes in front of the giant ring. He pulls out the red Chaos Emerald he found and start to play a game of catch with himself by repeatedly tossing it in the air in anticipation for his friend that gave him his memory back and ordered him to set up Sonic and Tails. This person appears a few minutes later out of nowhere through a portal and lands right on the side of Shadow. This person is covered head to foot in some kind of robe in order to hide the identity. Only the eyes are visible.

"So, are we even now," Shadow asks this strange person.

"Yes, I just came to thank you for all of your work. I shall take my leave now," this person says.

"Wait," Shadow says. "Before you go, I have one last request. I demand that you reveal yourself to me!" He goes for the robe and pulls it off. This person was completely caught of guard by Shadow's quick thinking and movement. His eyes are wide open at the sight of this person.

"You look like," Shadow says. "You look like..."

The person grabs the robe out of the sand and recovers herself as quickly as possible. "Never speak of this to anyone," the person screams.

"I won't. I just wanted to know who you are. I'll be going," Shadow says. "Wait, one more thing. Why did you make me set up the yellow one earlier?"

"I need the powers of the Chaos Rings in tandem with the Chaos Emeralds and the Rings of Fate to revive someone," the person says.

"Ah," Shadow says. "Well, I'm off."

"I may request your help later," the person says.

"Whatever," Shadow says. He runs off in the direction from which he came. "Maybe I should warn the smart one," he thinks. "I'll go see if he's at his place while searching for the remaining Chaos Emeralds."

Back in space, Sonic is sleeping and so is Knuckles. Tails is finished with maintenance so he sitting in the captain's chair doing nothing. Cream is sleeping. Amy is reading a book. The alarm for the radar beings to go off and this causes Cream to jump out of her chair. Cheese falls off of her and hits his head on the metal floor. Cream looks at the radar. It shows a ring icon on the next planet that's straight ahead. It is in plane sight already. Tails thinks about waking Sonic and Knuckles up to tell them, but he decides against it. The planet seems to be mostly water with huge landmasses very similar to original. There is only one problem though. Tails doesn't know how the land is on the planet. He'll have to land in the water. He deploys the special landing gear he made for this purpose. Tails lands in the water off of the coast of the one of the landmasses. He wakes Sonic and Knuckles up and they all go to the top of the jet. The place is really sunny and sky is cloudless. The sun is reflecting off of the water and the hull of the jet. In the distance to their right is some land.

"Why did you land here," Sonic asks. "I'm not a big fan of water."

"I didn't have a choice. I don't know the geography of this place which means the land features won't show up on radar. The radar will only tell us where the Chaos Ring is and nothing more," Tails explains. "I can fly us over to the land. Knuckles can glide it."

"I can carry Amy, maybe," Cream says.

"What's that supposed to mean," Amy asks.

"Nothing," Cream says.

"Yeah, I can glide this no problem, but I'll swim it instead," Knuckles says. "What's with the weird looks? I like to swim." He dives into the water and swims to the coast. Tails carries Sonic and Cream carries Amy with Cheese flying behind her. Sonic, Tails, Amy, and Cream lands on a cliff which extends out into the sea. Knuckles beat them here already. In front of them lies a jungle, but it won't take much trouble for them to navigate with the radar. As a matter of fact, the Chaos Ring is supposed to be close. After taking a few steps through the jungle they come across a golden path. The path moves on its own kind of like a conveyor belt. It takes them on a fixed path through the jungle and empties them out once the pass two very large metal gates. It seems as if they came across some kind of advanced civilization. The buildings are shaped in domes for the most part with metal cylinders and glass tops. Plants and trees dot the place all over though. It still seems like some sort of futuristic society, but there is only one problem. No one is anywhere to be seen. The place is deserted, but the surroundings have been kept intact.

"This place seems weird," Knuckles says. "Where are all the people? Something seems off here."

"I know that we should be worried, but this makes obtaining the Chaos Ring easier," Sonic says. "Point the way, Tails."

"No need to," Tails explains. "It's in the building on the right."

"Really," Amy asks. "I wanted to do some actual exploring after being stuck in the jet forever."

Sonic takes off running and Tails decides to run with him this time. He kicked his tails into the gear and managed to keep up with Sonic. The door to the place is locked. Knuckles pulls out his shovel claws and knocks the door open. The light in the room turns on automatically. This room is a very huge dome with an opening in the top. In the middle of this room sits a very large tree. It's so tall that it extends out of the top of the room. There is a sign on the wall to the left that's supposed to say what this room is, but it's in a completely different language which renders it useless. Tails points to the top of the tree.

"The Chaos Ring should be at the top of it. It's too high for me to fly up it and carry Sonic," Tails says.

"Leave it to me," Knuckles says. "I'll get up that tree in no time." He glides towards the tree and latches his knuckles on to. He climbs up the tree as fast as possible. He reaches the top in about 5 minutes, grabs the green Chaos Ring and throws it back down to Sonic. Sonic dives in order to catch it. When he touches the ring, the Rings of Fate glows for a bit then turns into the color green. They revert back into the gold color then the Chaos Rings shrinks into a size that's similar to a ring that fits on a finger.

"Finally," Tails says. "One step closer to solving this."

"Let's get going back to the ship then," Sonic says.

"Wait," a voice screams.

Everyone turns around slowly. They look around, but don't see anyone.

"I'm not the only one who heard that," Knuckles says.

"What was that," Amy asks.

"Um, hello," Sonic says. He has uncertainty in his voice.

"Yes," the voice says.

"What in the world is going on here," Knuckles says. "Who's talking?!!"

"I'm right in front of you," the voice says.

"No way," Cream says. "A talking tree."

* * *

To be continued....

So, the person behind the matter has been revealed sort of, and the reason why too (well I didn't get into why Tails was chosen, but that's coming up soon.) I already gave two hints to the gender of the person (one in chapter 1 and one in this chapter. Reading comprehension ftw.)

Next Chapter: Hero or Villain


	4. Hero or Villain

**Chapter 4: Hero or Villain**

This time, we shall start off with Shadow who is back on the original planet. He is currently running towards Tails' workshop with his emerald in hand using it as a radar to catch any more emeralds he could probably find. Once he makes to Tails' workshop, he uses his Chaos Emerald as an indicator to see if anyone is around. He knows that Sonic has the blue Chaos Emerald. His red one does not react, so he takes off towards the north. The northern part of the planet contains a great forest that goes up mountains which are snow-capped. The bottom of the forest at the base of the mountain is not affected by the cold because it's summer time around here so it's still moderately hot. Shadow's emerald starts to glow once he nears the base of the forest. He decides to take the path and walk through the forest instead of normally rushing through it. The path is a gravel road that extends through the forest but leads you out of it through the west. He stays on the path and notices that emerald starts to glow more brightly, so he decides to follow it to the end. Once finally out of the forest, Shadow shades his eyes from the sunlight. He looks to his right to see a cliff that extends from the ground. He sticks the emerald in that direction and gets stronger feedback which causes him to head up that way. Once he draws nearer to the cliff, he can see a rock at the end of it with something sticking out of it. Shadow runs to it. He stops dead in his tracks before he gets to it because he can feel something. In a portal in front of him drops down he same person from before, still covered in the robe.

"What do you want now," Shadow asks. She grabs his arm and leads him up the cliff to the rock. Shadow is now able to see what's in the rock. It's a sword, a black one with red lines that are glowing going through it. His emerald is going crazy now.

"This sword is a legendary sword," the person explains. "This sword is the only thing that break the bond between the Rings of Fate besides the Chaos Rings. I need this sword to make sure that no one could get to it."

"I wonder why the Chaos Emerald would lead me here," Shadow says. "Maybe another one is inside the rock? Stand back!" The person jumps back. Shadow uses his right hand to grab his left arm. He jumps back and swings his right hand forward while yelling "Chaos Spear!" The dust clears to reveal that the sword has put a red barrier that he can't break.

"I wanted to tell you that you must pull it out of the rock," the person says.

"Ah," Shadow says. He tosses her his Chaos Emerald. "Hold that for a bit." He jumps on top of the rock and plants both of his feat firmly on the sides of the sword. He grabs the handle with both of his hands and attempts to pull out the sword. The rock beings to light up as Shadow gradually lifts the sword out of the crack. The force of him finally getting the sword out causes him to fall off of the rock and hit the ground on his back. The rock that sword was once in breaks to reveal the purple Chaos Emerald. Shadow grabs it.

"I now have the second emerald," Shadow says. "Here's your sword." He hands it to her, but electricity forms from the sword and shocks her. It seems that the sword rejected her.

"I knew it. I'm too weak to handle the sword," she says.

"So why did you want it, so the others can't get their hands on it and break the Rings of Fate," Shadow asks. She doesn't answer him. "I see. Well, I planned to tell them about you and your plan but they aren't around. Seems like they went off somewhere, probably into space since the place where he launches his planes from are open. They probably went after the Chaos Rings. I bet you planned that too. Anyway, I thought about it and I won't tell them. I can't now even if I wanted to. They are too far away for me to reach them. I got two question for you then no more questions. Why did you choose the smart one to be stuck with the Rings of Fate?"

"Because only him can revive the person I'm going after, but he will be stuck with the Rings of Fate forever," she says. "He will then be able to have complete control over the rings, but only at the cost of someone's life. That life is the surrogate partner."

"So, he will be stuck with the Rings of Fate forever if he chooses to revive this person, but Sonic will die," Shadow says. "I see. Last question, why are you wearing the robe? It's pretty hot out here and you know that I seen you already so it must be killing you to wear that thing. I don't really care, I'm just asking. They are gone now anyway."

"I needed to hide my identity, but you do make a point," she says. She takes of the robe and throws it over Shadow's head. "You don't mind carrying that for me, do you?"

"I guess I'll carry it," Shadow says.

"Now that you know I need the Chaos Emeralds too, I'll be following you from now on," she says.

"Whatever," Shadow says. "I don't care. Do what you want." He walks back into the forest with the robe on his head and the sword in his left hand with this mysterious person behind him. "I know who she looks like, but the name isn't coming to me," he thinks while still walking. "I'll find out eventually."

**We now return to space...**

"How is this tree talking. It doesn't have a facial features," Sonic asks.

"I communicate with people through their minds instead of voice," the tree says.

"That makes sense, kinda," Knuckles says. "Are you like, the ruler of this place?"

"I'm not, my two daughters were," the tree says. "You see, long ago this place was a very thriving planet with many people around. My daughters were the rulers of this place. They lead the place strictly, well, my older daughter did. The younger was too nice, but together they were able to combine those strengths and become the greatest rulers of this kingdom the place has ever seen."

"What happened to them," Tails asks.

"There was a rebellion against them by some unknown party," the tree says. "The army stayed and fought while my daughters were supposed to escape. The older one wanted to stay and fight, which she actually did and the youngest one was confirmed to leave with the gem of orifice. It's a purple gem that has the power to quell any bad energy, but at the cost of the user's life. I have been in here since it's the only place that's protected from any outside matter or explosions. That's how the battle ended, in an explosion that wiped out the entire planet. So in conclusion, it has been confirmed that my youngest daughter got away, but no confirmation as to what happened to my oldest one. I don't know if she got away or if she's dead."

"Hmm, I wonder what their names are," Amy asks.

"It's been so long that I don't remember," the tree says. "It seems as though the yellow one has been bounded with Rings of Fate."

"Uhh, you don't have eyes. How can you see," Knuckles asks.

"Shut up, knucklehead," Sonic says. "The tree can probably help us out here. Can you?"

"Maybe, there is a legend of a sword that was carved that could break the star band. The sword is not here though. It was banished out to some distant planet because we are unable to wield it," the tree says.

"How can you..." Knuckles says.

"Shut up," Amy screams as she hits Knuckles with her hammer.

"Okay, alright already," Knuckles says. He is in some serious pain.

"This is not my true form. You see, since I am weak and in old age I have turned into a tree in order to save my energy and live probably a longer life," it says.

"That's neat," Cream says.

"Well then, I guess we should go now," Tails says. "Thanks for the information."

Once back in the jet, Tails prepares the green Chaos Ring to be used as a sensor.

"So the ring will give us the location to the next one, but not the closest one," Sonic asks.

"Correct," Tails says. "I'm done. What does the radar say?"

"Next ring is about three light years away," Cream says.

"How long will it take us to reach it," Knuckles says through his microphone.

"Even at top speed it'll take a few days," Tails says.

"Aw," Sonic says. "I'll lose my mind..."

"Start the emerald, Knuckles," Tails says.

**Back to Shadow...**

Shadow has been walking around with the main antagonist for the whole day right now trying to find another Chaos Emerald. He came up empty-handed, so he decides to take a break for the day. Shadow has led this person to the emerald shrine. He notices that Master Emerald is gone which only furthers his guesses that he made earlier about everyone else going after the Chaos Rings. He walks all the way up the shrine and takes a seat in front of where the Master Emerald is supposed to be. The other person is looking around the place and is taking in the site of what she sees. Shadow stares at her for a bit then begins to close his eyes and fall asleep only to be woke up by something hitting him on the head. He looks up to see someone flying over him.

"What do you want you crazy bat," he says while rubbing his head.

"I've been looking for Knuckles today," Rouge says. "Have you seen him?"

"Nope, he probably went with the others seeing as the Master Emerald is gone too," Shadow says.

"Uh, who is that over there," Rouge asks as she points to her right. "She looks familiar... Hey!"

The person runs over to Shadow and Rouge.

"Who are you," Rouge asks. "I think I've seen you somewhere before awhile back. Well, you look like someone I once knew."

"I'm not telling you anything," she says.

"Wow, what did I do," Rouge asks. "Anyway, why are you with Shadow?"

"Because he's helping me," she replies.

"I see," Rouge says. "Well sorry to mess with you two. I'll be going now." She glides off after that.

"What did she mean by mess with us," she asks.

"I don't know," Shadow says. "By the way, don't mind me asking, but it's been getting to me lately. How did those scars get on your back? You don't have to answer."

"To make a long story short, it was in a war I fought awhile ago in order to defend my people and to help my sister get away," she says. "My sister is dead now."

"I get it. You are trying to revive your sister," Shadow says. "Your sister must be this person I vaguely remember."

"Huh," she asks. "You seen someone that kind of looks like me?"

"Yes, but that was some time ago," Shadow says. "If I'm not mistaken, she was good friends with the others."

"I see. So you know who she is too," she says.

"Barely. I remember what she looks like, but the name just isn't coming to me," Shadow says. "She saved us that time before she disappeared."

"Do you know anything else," she asks.

"Nope, but the others should know more than me," he says. He then thinks for as he looks up into the clouds. Grey clouds are beginning to form against the orange sky since the sun is setting right now. "It looks like it's going to rain. We are going to have to go somewhere. Take my hand." She grabs his hands and Shadow uses Chaos Control. Where do they end up? Well, instead of imposing on Rouge like he would normally do, Shadow went for Tails' house this time. He ends up on the porch. There are two chairs to the right. Shadow takes a seat in one and the she takes a seat in the other. It's raining pretty hard now with some thundering going on. He is holding the sword in his right hand at the moment and is studying it. It's pretty clear that by the look on his face he's deep in thought.

"Is something wrong," she asks.

"I just noticed something," Shadow says. "Since you helped me gain my memory and stuff, I finally realized that Sonic and the others were actually trying to warn me about the fact that the doctor was just using me. They were tying to help me, but yet I would turn them down and sometimes fight them in disbelief. I feel kind of bad about all that now."

"Well, what do you plan to do about it," she asks. "You can't do anything for them."

"You're right I think, although I do want to help," Shadow says. "We'll continue the emerald hunt tomorrow. You should enter the house and find some place in there to sleep." He throws her the robe. "I'll stay out here."

"Okay," she says.

She enters the house while Shadow stays in his seat. He sets the sword down in the other chair now since it's empty. He slouches down in the chair and closes his eyes for a bit. The rain has actually intensified and the thunder is more frequent. Shadow is about to fall asleep, but he feels something. He quickly moves his head to right and watches as a bullet passes in front his face through the wall behind him. He jumps out of his chair and looks straight ahead to see two orange lights. It's too dark out to see a body or anything, but every time the lighting flashes he gets enough clues to see what's going on.

"What are you doing here Metal Sonic," Shadow asks.

"I have come to avenge my creator and carry on his plans of world domination," the robot says. "You shall die right here."

"Damn, I don't feel like doing this right now," Shadow says. "I got too much on my mind."

"I don't care. I can't care, I'm a freaking robot," it says. "Prepare to die or hand over your Chaos Emeralds."

"Normally I wouldn't fight you, but I guess I don't have a choice. I can't let you get into this house," Shadow says.

To be continued....

* * *

This chapter was Shadow heavy. Anyway, some more clues on the mystery person have been given. Let me make this clear. She's not a fan character. It someone who actually shown their face before, but it was only **once**. Sister of someone with a purple gem who died. Their parent is a tree. Ah well. All shall be discovered next time. Next chapter won't have as much as Shadow in it.

Next Chapter: Tidal Tempest


	5. Tidal Tempest

**Chapter 5: Tidal Tempest**

"So, Chaos Emeralds or your life," Metal Sonic says as he points at Shadow. The occasional lighting shines off of the robot's figure.

"I guess we have to fight, then," Shadow says. He pulls out his Chaos Emerald while Metal Sonic charges towards him. He activates it to use Chaos Control. Metal Sonic's movements slows down in Shadow's eyes. The punch that the robot throws at him seems pretty slow. The hedgehog dodges this by moving his head to right. He hits the robot with his knee in the face. Metal Sonic stumbles back and begins to slide since the grass is wet from the rain. He floats as his rockets switches on to propel himself into the air to avoid sliding. Shadow does the same thing with his shoes. The robot thrust his right arm back, and then brings it forward at an incredible speed with his palm open to shoot a laser at Shadow. He sticks the Chaos Emerald in front of the beam and that cancels it out. Since Shadow was distracted, the robot took the chance to jump into the air and attack with a kick. He doesn't have enough time to use Chaos Control, and the sword is too far away or so he thought. The sword flies into the air and lands in his right hand. He blocks Metal Sonic with the sword. The robot jumps back.

"I see, so that girl over there is helping you," he says.

"She doesn't have anything to do with our fight," Shadow yells.

"She interfered," Metal Sonic says. "Because of that, once I'm done with you I'll finish her off as well!" He charges towards Shadow yet again. Shadow uses his Chaos Spear attack in order to halt him, but the robot still proceeds. He jumps in order to avoid Metal Sonic's attack. Shadow decides to give the sword a try. He crashes down on his foe with the sword in both hands. He hits him on the head and jumps back. The skull of Metal Sonic cracked, but that's it. The robot laughs and charges towards him again as fast as possible. He knocks the sword of Shadow's hand and lands to the left of him with it lodged in the ground. He dives for his sword and that's what the robot wanted. He flies to Shadow's spot before he could get back up from grabbing the sword. Shadow is kicked pretty hard in the face and flies into that only tree in front of Tails' house. The robot slowly walks towards him. Shadow can see the orange eyes coming towards him. He scrambles for his Chaos Emerald with his left arm, but he notices that it's in deep pain. He can barely move it, but he fights the pain. With sword in his right hand and the Chaos Emerald in his left and Metal Sonic right in front of him, he figures it time. Shadow yells out Chaos Control and disappears in a blue flash. He reappears in the air in front of the robot with his sword in his right hand across his body. He swings it through the robot's chest as hard and fast as possible splitting its case in two, but not the whole thing. He lets out a Chaos Blast once the swing is done. Metal Sonic is sent over Tails' house through the sky while flying away at an alarming rate. Shadow watches as the robot flies away until he's out of sight. He puts away his Chaos Emerald and stumbles back to the porch in order to take his seat. Our mystery person watched the whole thing, so she immediately wrapped up Shadow's left arm in bandages.

"That was pretty tough," she says as she takes the seat next to Shadow. "Do you encounter him often?"

"No. Normally when he would come around and ask for a fight I would Chaos Control away so I don't waste my time," Shadow explains. "But he seems different for some reason, kind of stronger."

"Why did you fight him if you normally would avoid him," she asks.

"Because he came here in order to raid the place for a Chaos Emerald and if he saw you then you would have been dead," Shadow replies. "I protected you, and like I said I wanted to help out the other since they seem like the only people I can trust so I protected Tails' house."

"You know, I've been worrying about you trying to help your friends. That means you plan to kill off my plan," she says.

Shadow thinks for a bit. "I thought about and decided against it since I kind of know where you're coming from," he says. "I would go through anything in order to revive a person who was close to me as well. That's why I won't interfere with your plan. I'm actually helping you right now, aren't I?"

"I see," she says. "Well then, I think I should do something for you. I'll reveal my name to you."

"Finally," Shadow says sarcastically. "Although I really don't need it, but do it if you wish."

"My name is Galaxina," she says.

"Ah," Shadow says. "Still though, fucking finally. Took too damn long. Five freaken chapters."

Now then, back to space. Everyone else is actually sleeping in their rooms except for Knuckles who is channel surfing, Sonic who is sleeping in his chair, and Tails who is keeping eyes on the radar since Cream is sleeping. He is also piloting the ship for the hell of it. It's in order to keep him awake although he is having trouble keeping his eyes open. The alarm fully wakes him up though. Sonic falls out of his chair once he hears the alarm. Amy and Cream runs into the room.

"What's going on down there," Knuckles asks through his microphone.

"We are approaching Chaos Ring number two," Tails says enthusiastically. "It's on the planet straight ahead."

"That planet is completely blue," Amy says. "No land on it."

"Aw, I'm getting tired of water," Sonic complains. "Do I have to go in this one?"

"Don't worry about it," Tails says. "I can now try out my latest invention." He pulls out a metal case and opens it to reveal five little black balls. "These balls are gum. Chew it and you can breathe underwater for a year. It also takes care of water pressure."

"That's pretty nifty," Cream says.

"Still doesn't hide the fact that Sonic can't swim and he's afraid of water," Knuckles says through his microphone. He takes a hearty laugh.

"Knuckles is right," Amy says. "Sonic still can't swim."

"Hmm, I can swim us both as long as he streamlines himself so it will make it easier for us to swim," Tails says.

"I get it. All I have to do is keep my arms to my sides, right," Sonic asks. "Thanks."

"No problem," Tails says. "Now then. I'll deploy the water landing gear."

Tails lands the jet on top of the watery planet. That's all there is to this planet, water as far as the eye can see. Only underwater is where the action happens. The sunlight is reflecting off of the water and it's pretty windy out. Everyone is standing on the left wing of the ship. Tails pulls out the Chaos Ring radar. He passes around the case of gum that he showed off earlier. Knuckles didn't accept since he's wearing his air necklace. He's the first one to jump into the water. He swims for a bit to show off in front of Sonic in order to make him mad which he does. Tails dives in next and forcibly takes Sonic with him. Amy and Cream are the last two. They crowd around Tails in order to take a look at the radar. It points below them in the northern direction. Tails leads the way since he's the one with the radar. He dives underwater pulling Sonic in with him and the rest follows. For a planet full of water, it's kind of shallow for what Tails was expecting. It's only around twenty feet to the bottom. It's also devoid of aquatic life. Tails continually leads everyone while pulling Sonic with him. After a few minutes, they come across a cave.

"We have to go in it," Tails says.

"We can talk underwater," Sonic asks surprisingly.

"Apparently so," Knuckles says.

"What do you think is in it," Amy asks.

"I don't know," Tails says. "Follow me."

He swims into the cave with everyone else behind him. The cave takes them down at an angle. Tails follows it until he's able to see a light at the end of it. He swims for the light. Once out of the cave, everyone begins to look around at this underwater palace. The buildings are crafted with kind of a purple color scheme and it's clear to see that they are made out of marble. There are streets which are made out of stone and lights dot the streets. There is a sign on Tails' left, but he can't read it since it's in some kind of language. Knuckles looks to right and see a switch on the wall of the cave. He hits it and the water begins to drain.

"Alright, good going Knuckles," Sonic says.

"This seems to be an underwater palace," Tails says. "The ring is in here somewhere. The radar says it's straight ahead."

"Yes," Sonic says. "Let's go then." He takes off running and Tails does as well. Knuckles takes off after them. Amy and Cream decides to stay at the entrance so Tails can find it later. Sonic is running through the main street with legs kicked in so that they look a wheel as he runs. Tails' tails got the fan effect going while Knuckles is running along on the side of them. They are approaching a tower quickly since they are running so fast. The pole to their right is taller than the tower so Sonic decides to use that. He hops to the pole and grabs it with his right hand. Because of the speed he was running at, the force swings him around the pole while carrying him upward with Tails right behind. Knuckles decides to climb the building instead. Sonic releases from the pole once he reaches the top of the building. There's another building blocking the way and it's as twice as high as the first. It's too high for Tails to fly up it.

"What do we do now," Sonic asks.

"Eh, I can climb it," Knuckles says. "You guys are on your own."

"I got it," Tails says. "Use the power of the ring to keep yourself planted."

Sonic stays put. Tails flies up the side of the building. He can only make it about halfway until the star band reaches it's limit. He orders to Sonic to release. The hedgehog does and he rockets through the air because of the star band's pull. He flies past Tails and eventually ends up carrying him as he rises through the air and lands on top of the building with Tails on the side of him. Knuckles just finishes with his climbing.

"Not fair," Knuckles pants.

"You said we were on our own," Sonic says mockingly.

"Uhh," Tails says. "The next building is too high for us to get over even if we try anything."

Knuckles looks to his left and sees another switch. He hits it. Everyone looks over on the cliff to the right. They watch as the water level rises and the ground splits open to form a waterway. They jump into this. A fan covers the hole in the ground and propels them through the waterway. They come across a pipe which they grab. Tails looks below to see spikes on the left at another pole on the right. He instructs Knuckles to fall on the right. Tails and Knuckles grab the second pole while Sonic is just floating around. They have to fall through the left this time. The fan then propels them up through the waterway and it exits on the other side of the tall building that blocked them once before.

"That was oddly familiar," Sonic says.

"Same thing I was thinking," Knuckles says.

"The ring is closer," Tails says. "It's not too far now."

They run to the edge of the cliff they are standing on. There is a water slide on the right. Sonic runs down it and carries Tails with him. Knuckles decides to run down it too. The slides empties out on top of a pool of water which Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles run across since the slide gave them unbelievable speed which could only be matched by blast processing. Sonic slows to a stop once he reaches the other side of the pool. He notices a floating, spinning cylinder. Sonic and Tails jump on this in order to carry themselves up the wall. Knuckles climbs the other wall instead. They come across another water slide which they proceed to run down. It empties in front of a loop which they proceed to run through. Sonic slows to a stop once they come across the blue Chaos Ring which is at the end of the loop.

"Yes, we did it," Sonic says. "Grab it."

Tails grabs the Chaos Ring. This one is blue. It glows and causes the Rings of Fate to glow a blue color. The glowing subsides and the ring shrinks. Tails puts it away. He uses his watch to get the location of Amy and Cream and points Sonic in that direction. Sonic uses Chaos Control to go back where Amy and Cream are supposed to be standing at the entrance. They aren't here, but their watches are left on the ground.

"Uh oh," Knuckles says. "Their watches are here, but they aren't. This is not good."

"I wonder what happened," Sonic thinks. "This place seemed empty when we got here. Something else is probably around. See anything over there, Tails?"

"Yeah," Tails screams. He is staring at the wall next to the cave's entrance. There is another switch here. He presses it and that part of the wall caves in to reveal another cave. Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles stare at this cave which seems to be carved with gold. They cautiously enter with Sonic leading the way. The path lets them out in a dark room with no lights. Tails pulls out a flashlight that he carried with him. The room seems pretty empty, or so he thinks. That all changes once Knuckles hits the switch on the right. The lights turn on and the water level rises filling up about half of the room with the cave behind them now closed by a golden door. The ceiling in the cave parts way and something drops down in on a platform. Our heroes are shocked at what they see.

* * *

Cliffhangers, w00t. Main antagonist's name is revealed. Amy and Cream are trapped. Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles are trapped in a room with no way out.

Next Chapter: Tidal Tempest II


End file.
